Blu-ray Sales: Reunions Make People Blu

July 24th, 2012

There were only two new releases to chart this week, but one of them, American Reunion, led the way with 352,000 units / $7.04 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 46%, which is excellent for a comedy. On the other hand, it has missed expectations nearly every step of the way, so this isn't enough to make the studio really happy.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is still a factor on the Blu-ray chart after a month of release. It sold an additional 109,000 units and generated $1.89 million lifting its totals to 2.36 million units / $53.59 million. It wasn't quite as strong at the box office as its predecessor, but it is compensating with much better home market numbers. Wrath of the Titans was right behind with 104,000 units / $2.35 million for the week, while it now has 956,000 units / $21.91 million after three. It was a box office disappointment and it would need to sell a lot more Blu-rays to break even.

Batman Begins rose to fourth place with 102,000 units / $1.01 million for the week and totals of 1.5 million units / $19.5 million. The Dark Knight Rises rounded out the top five with 101,000 units / $1.25 million. It might have become the first Blu-ray to sell 7 million units. It and Avatar are neck and neck for top spot on the all-time chart, but The Dark Knight came out before the Blu-ray market was large enough to track with real precision, so its numbers are less solid. It is very likely the film will become the best selling Blu-ray, thanks in part to the boost it is getting from The Dark Knight Rises. However, Avatar might regain the lead when Avatar 2 comes out, especially if that film helps encourage people to make the leap to 3-D, which causes them to buy Avatar again.

The only other new release to chart was The Flowers of War, which placed 20th with 21,000 units / $377,000. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 49%, which is very impressive for this type of release. However, it cost $100 million to make, so this is far too little, way too late.

The overall Blu-ray market was a little weaker compared to last week dipping 3% in terms of units and 8% in terms of revenue. This is a little surprising, as this week there was at least one first-run release. Compared to last year, sales were up 36% in terms of units and 19% in terms of revenue. This is lower than we've seen recently; however, it is better than expected. DVD sales were roughly the same compared to last week and last year with low single-digit declines in most categories. It actually saw a 3% growth in revenue from last year. The overall Blu-ray share was nearly identical to last week at 38% in terms of units and 42% in terms of revenue, which was not a whole lot better than last year.

Next week is really no better than this week. Lockout should lead the way, but it likely won't have much of an impact on the Blu-ray chart. Last year's new releases were led by Limitless, which did okay on the DVD sales chart, while it sold 149,000 Blu-rays. The year-over-year comparison should be similar to this week, but slightly better. We won't have a really good week on the home market till will see The Hunger Games' initial numbers in about a month's time.